ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Three Creekside High School students have been arrested after Youth Services Unit deputies learned they were discussing a “lethal hit list” targeting multiple students, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies said the students — ages 15, 14 and 14 — shared group text messages identifying “target students,” including photographs with faces circled, aerial photographs of Creekside High with an on-campus location circled, and the use of firearms.
The Sheriff’s Office said the messages were considered a credible threat against other students.
Deputies said the “hit list” targeted students the group wanted to physically harm and the “lethal hit list” targeted students the group wanted to kill.
“Originally this was a hit list,” St. Johns Sheriff Robert Hardwick said. “Basically with the threat to kind of harm or beat up these these kids in this list. And then it quickly switched over to a lethal hit list where they were going to kill these kids to include aerial photography, reconnaissance per se.”
The three teens were charged with written threats to kill or do bodily harm and unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
“We are convinced that these young men were going to follow through with this lethal hit list with violence,” Hardwick said.
News4JAX is not identifying the students because of their ages and the nature of the charges.
“Nothing is more important to me than the safety of our children and this is another example of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office’s commitment to protect the more than 50,000 students who attend classes on a daily basis,” Sheriff Rob Hardwick said in a news release. “I am proud of the youth services deputies assigned to this investigation, who acted quickly on the information that was provided and prevented a potential tragedy.”
The Sheriff’s Office has two full-time threat assessment deputies assigned to St. Johns County Schools who are specially trained to investigate threats, coordinate resources, and intervene to ensure student and faculty safety.
“I’m proud of our Deputy Sheriff for their immediate response on this,” Hardwick said. “I’m proud of our partnership with the Saint Johns County School District.”
Hardwick also called on parents to be involved in their child’s life, and for them to know who they hang out with and what they do online.
“I hate to use the cliche, ‘if you see something, say something’, but we gotta be more involved in these children’s lives and hold them accountable, and be responsible for their actions, Hardwick said. “Because I don’t know if every parent knows what exactly is going on in these cell phones.”
For more information about school safety and reporting suspicious activity, visit: https://getfortifyfl.com/ or https://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/sss/safety/.
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